Saturday, September 17, 2005

This Truly Stuns Me

I have had a long policy of voting, often against my personal party allegiance in terms of policy, for whomever I consider to be the best candidate in my riding. In the last provincial election, while I felt most in tune with the Liberals (sorry - it is sadly true), I voted for my local NDP candidate, Michael Prue.

Behaviour like this can only go so far. I suspect the observations in this post on Harry's Place will come close to ending my policy. At least for NDP candidates. It is so sad to see where the left has gone. Once I thought we were opposed to tyrants, opposed to random vicious slaughter, opposed to anti-Semitism. Now it seems these are the qualifications. Sad sad sad.

Google can tell you all you need to know about Galloway but this piece of demagoguery is a recent high. I am not quite sure where he got the idea that either Baghdad or Jerusalem are historically Arab cities. And those who like to point out that at one time Baghdad represented the high point of modern civilization (and this is arguably true) should never forget that it was not necessarily Arabs, and certainly not Muslims, who contributed the most to what they mean by that.

Hitchens, as will be evident to anyone who heard him address members of the audience as 'comrades' and invoke socialist solidarity is still a man of the Left who has merely remained true to the internal logic of his convictions. It puts him on the side of those fighting for republican forms against absolutist theocracies; and if that is the same camp as George Bush's then so be it. In that context, the contrast between Hitchens and Galloway is less of belief than of integrity: Hitchens opposes Al Qaeda because of his Leftist beliefs; Galloway supports Al Qaeda in despite of them